Government departments are mobilizing their forces across the nation to fight against the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has badly affected the lives and work of many people.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions announced yesterday it will award three hospitals and six medical staff the "May 1 Labour Medal" to commend their dedication in the war against SARS.

It also allocated 3.7 million yuan (US$449,000) to award medical staff treating SARS patients.

Fears about the deadly SARS virus have had a bad affect on people's lives in Beijing.

The Sixth China Beijing International High-Tech Expo, scheduled to be held from May 23 to 27, has been postponed until further notice, said its organizing committee in a bulletin yesterday.

The China National Library and the Capital Library in Beijing will be closed for almost two weeks.

However, the national library staff should go to work as usual and Internet and telephone services will continue, according to a library staff member surnamed Xu.

The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicines yesterday recommended six prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicines to help people prevent SARS.

But Zhu Kangnian, secretary-general of the China Health Care Science Technology Society yesterday appealed to residents to be cautious about buying health care food products.

In Shanghai, the expert team from the World Health Organization (WHO) continued their investigations.

WHO released a latest travel warning that discourages people from visiting Beijing and North China's Shanxi Province.

"We understand the preventive measures taken by some international organizations and countries against the epidemic situation in China," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao yesterday in Beijing.

He spoke highly of the co-operation between China and the WHO, hoping this will continue.

China will seriously study the suggestions the WHO has put forward to prevent and cure the epidemic, said Liu.

Hong Kong yesterday saw an increase of 30 SARS patients, 10 of whom are residents of Tai Po district.

Health authorities have also found the third suspected SARS case in Macao.

(China Daily April 25, 2003)